"…the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." —1 Tim. 3:15
The logical conclusion we drew from Num. 20:10-12 last week was this: TO “BELIEVE” = TO “OBEY.” But does the New Testament agree with this conclusion? Indeed, it does. Let us consider John 3:36, for instance: “Whoever BELIEVES IN the Son has eternal life; but whoever DISOBEYS the Son shall not see life…” It must be
So many times in the Bible, man is admonished or expected to “believe in” something or someone. In John 3:16, for instance, we are informed that whoever “believes in” Jesus Christ will have eternal life. Such statements seem as plain as could be—but are they? Here is the question we must ask: What does it
One of the most popularly debated verses in the New Testament is Mark 16:16. After giving the great commission—that followers of Christ are to preach the gospel to all peoples as they go about in their everyday lives (15)—the Lord answers, as it were, an unspoken question: “OK, so as we are going and preaching the
“PROVE ALL THINGS; HOLD FAST THAT WHICH IS GOOD.” 1 THESSALONIANS 5:21 As we have emphasized in the last few installments, one of the keys to correct Bible interpretation is the use of valid logic and reasoning, just as we would (and do) in normal, everyday conversation. Consider, for instance, Acts 2:38: “And Peter said to them,
“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thess. 5:21). That’s what the apostle Paul admonished the Christians at Thessalonica to do. “Beloved, do not believe every spirit [i.e., teacher], but prove the spirits [i.e., teachers], whether they are of God [i.e., whether they are speaking the truth]” (1 John 4:1a). That’s what
God blessed mankind with two immutable gifts (among many others): 1. Objective reasoning; 2. The ability to reason objectively. Since such is the case, obviously God had a reason for giving man the gift of reason. That reason is simply this: He expects us to use it! Yes, God expects and require that we abide by
Many people claim to believe in, and follow, the Bible, and to be Christians. However, some of these same people claim that doing so requires no human reasoning or logic. “I walk by faith,” they would likely say. Of course, walking “by faith” (2 Cor. 5:7; cf. Hab. 2:4) is what one should do, at
In 1 Samuel 13:13,14, the prophet Samuel tells the then-current king of Israel that none of his sons will sit the throne after him; instead, he says, “Jehovah hath sought him a man after his own heart” to be Israel’s second king (14). That man’s name was David. But the thing is, when we read
One of the rules of correct Bible interpretation (“lesser” though it may be) is this: On any given topic, interpret the more difficult and obscure passage(s) in light of the more clear and obvious one(s). In other words, view a difficult passage through the lens of a clearer passage on the same subject. An easy example is Luke 14:26, where
When we open the New Testament, we have the blessing of reading two invaluable things: 1. The inspired record of the things Jesus did and taught. 2. The inspired record of the things Jesus’ chosen apostles did and taught. In no other place can one find these treasures. In no other place on planet Earth